Cobra Kai: the secretly perfect legacy sequel
By Sam Hartley
A legacy sequel is a continuation of a previous film or TV show at least 20 years later, often revolving around the aged-up characters continuing their story and relying heavily on nostalgia and call-backs from the original classic we grew up watching. There have been great legacy sequels such as Top Gun: Maverick and Blade Runner 2049, where they create new stories in the same world and use their predecessors to further the story and provide emotional moments. There have also been very mediocre legacy sequels such as the Jurassic World and Ghostbusters series, where they focus more on telling the same story and showing you things you remember from the originals instead of giving you a new story. Although it’s exciting to see familiar things from your childhood, a good sequel must stand on its own and be compelling on its own before relying on nostalgic elements.
Then we have The Karate Kid, a simple underdog story that was released in 1984. It follows a teenager named Daniel LaRusso as he joins a new school, meets a girl, gets bullied, etc. He then meets Mr Miyagi, who works in his building and he starts training him in karate to eventually take down the bullies and win over the girl. Sounds very cliché, right? It’s an extremely simple movie but is a classic feel-good movie where good overcomes evil. Two further sequels were made in the 80s and a remake in 2010, with varying reviews, leading to indications of a dead franchise. However, in 2018, the TV series Cobra Kai was released, which completely subverted everyone’s expectations.
Cobra Kai takes place 30 years after the original movie and instead of following Daniel, it follows Johnny Lawrence, who was the original bully and rival. In the movie, Johnny was extremely one-dimensional as just the ‘evil guy,’ but in this series we have the time to learn why and see his perspective. We learn why he was the way he was and it gives him so much depth that we start to question who the true good guy was in The Karate Kid. We then meet Daniel, who is a wealthy businessman who is difficult at times, so we question who we’re supposed to root for in this series. A good sequel has to stand on its own as well as making the original film richer and Cobra Kai does this perfectly.
This series has amazing stunts and fight choreography
As well as looking at Johnny and Daniel, this series introduces a bunch of new teenage characters, including the children of the original characters. This works well to continue The Karate Kid’s legacy as well as appeal to a younger demographic, which allows Cobra Kai to succeed as a multi-generational TV show. The teen drama can be cringy at times, but that’s exactly what the original film was. This series has amazing stunts and fight choreography and it’s incredibly funny, leading to its Best Comedy Series Emmy nomination, which is very rare for this kind of series.
Throughout the series, they also bring back practically every single supporting character from the original 3 movies, with all the same actors returning. Yes, this is for nostalgia, but it’s also just cool seeing all these random characters coming back and it always provides character growth for Johnny and Daniel as they reflect on their past. And the fact that the original sequels were objectively awful and they bring these characters back and make them cool and likeable is very impressive. Again, it improves the original movies, which is very impressive.
The creators found a way to make a great teen action comedy as well as continuing a beloved 80s classic
Overall, this series could’ve been bad in so many ways, but the creators found a way to make a great teen action comedy as well as continuing a beloved 80s classic and surpassing it. This isn’t the greatest thing ever made at all, but its ability to take a popular film and build on it over 6 seasons, giving it so much depth, is truly masterful and everything a legacy sequel should be.
Image: Erik Mclean via Pexels
